If you’re reading this blog, I assume you’re a descendant of Penelope and Richard Stout and are familiar with her story and want to know more. I would love to discover the truth behind Penelope’s story but facts are scarce. I'll have to settle for conjectures.

Together, we can combine our incomplete knowledge and arrive at better conclusions. So please comment.

........ Conjecture, noun, the formation of judgments or opinions on the basis of incomplete or inconclusive information. Source: Encarta Dictionary

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Voyages to New Amsterdam and Curacao

Here are voyages (and related events) to and from New Amsterdam and Curacao from Sept 1646 to Dec 1648. Note that Kath is also spelled de Kath, Kat, Kadt, Cath, or Cat in the various accounts:
14 Sep 1646, Curaçao: Ship Wapen van Nieu Nederlandt arrives in Curaçao and will depart for New Amsterdam.

1647, Amsterdam: Ship Witte Doffer sails to New Amsterdam.
11 May 1647, New Amsterdam: With a fleet of 4 ships, new Director-General Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam by way of the Caribbean island Curaçao (also a part of New Netherland and which he formerly commanded). The Princess Amelia (also called Princess) sailed from Texel (near Amsterdam) on 25 Dec 1646. The Groote Gerrit [Great Crow] under command of Paulus Leendertzen van der Grift likely accompanied the Princess Amelia. Kath [Cat] and Swol [Swallow] probably sailed later and rendezvoused at Curaçao.
1647 May 31. Bill of sale of the ship Amandare, by Peter Stuyvesant, director of
New Netherland, to Thomas Broughton, and charter of the same,
to go to Boston, Isaac Allerton of New Amsterdam and Thomas
Willett of New Plymouth, being securities

5 Jun 1647, New Amsterdam: Ship Wapen van Nieu Nederlandt is in port and will sail for Amsterdam. June 6. Power of attorney. William de Key, merchant, and Jan Claesen
Snial, skipper of the Arms of New Netherland, to Isaac Allerton,
to sell horses on their account in Virginia.

6 Jun 1647, New Amsterdam: The council orders the West India Company ships Groote Gerrit, De Kath and De Liefde [Love] to be made ready to go to sea as privateers against the Spanish.
Unknown dates, New Amsterdam. Groote Gerrit sails to “…Boston in the English Virginia with a load of salt…”. A frigate from Medenblick arrives. Hercules, with skipper Cornelis Claessen Snoo, arrives. Ship Tamarande is sold.

5 Jul 1647, New Amsterdam: Thomas Broughton buys ship ‘T Amandaree (“arrived here from Brazil”) from the West India Company and will sail to Boston. He borrows some crew and will return them to Groote Gerrit in Boston.

26 Jul 1647, New Amsterdam: Liefde is in port.

2 Aug 1647, New Amsterdam: Prins Willem is in port.

10 Aug, 1647, New Amsterdam: The ship St. Beninjo, under master Cornelis Claessen Snoo, is charged with smuggling.

14 Aug 1647, New Amsterdam: Valckenier is in port.

16 Aug 1647, New Amsterdam: Princess Amelia departs New Amsterdam and sinks in the Bristol Channel on 27 Sep 1647.

21 Sept 1647: Stuyvesant sells Swol to the vice-governor of New Haven.

Before 6 Oct 1647: Valckenier [Falconer] leaves for Amsterdam.

1647: The yacht Siruen when seized by the Swedes on the South River in 1647 was carrying six guns and 60 lbs. of powder.

Oct 1648: When the Dutch crew delivers Swol to New Haven on a Sunday, they execute a plan to seize the disputed Dutch ship St. Beninjo and sail it back to New Amsterdam to answer the charge of smuggling.

19 Feb 1648, Curaçao: Vice_Director Roodenborch writes Stuyvesant that Groote Gerrit was damaged by a storm and sickness has rendered the crews of Cath and Liefde unfit for duty. The letter goes by way of Boston [presumably on an English ship].

7 Apr 1648, Amsterdam: The company officials in Amsterdam write a letter to Stuyvesant . Included are these passages: “The bearer hereof, Wm. Thomassen, skipper of the ‘Valckenier’ [Falconer] and Peter Cornelissen, master of the ‘Pynappel’ [or Pijnappel, Pineapple], who takes out the duplicate of this letter… We send you a list of all the free men, whom we have given permission to go over on each ship…”

20 Apr 1648, New Amsterdam: The council dispatches Nieu Swol to Curaçao.
23 Apr 1648, New Amsterdam: Kath arrives in New Amsterdam with captured Spanish ship.

10 May 1648, Boston: John Winthrop’s Journal records that three ships arrived from London in a single day.

22 May 1648, Boston: John Winthrop’s Journal: “This year corn was very scarce, and so it was in all Europe. Our scarcity came by occasion of our transporting much to the West Indies, and the Portugal and Spanish islands.” Implies frequent trade with the Caribbean.
4 Jun 1648, Boston: John Winthrop’s Journal: “At this court one Margaret Jones of Charlestown was indicted and found guilty of witchcraft, and hanged for it....The same day and hour she was executed, there was a very great tempest at Connecticut, which blew down many tress, etc....A vessel [under command of Master Bull] of Connecticut being the last winter at Quorasoe [Curacao]...”
23 Jun 1648, New Amsterdam: “…they detained Verbrugge’s ship ‘den Valckenier’ (The Falconer) as it arrived from the Netherlands and searched it for contraband or smuggled goods.”
2 Jul 1648, New Amsterdam: The council gives 30-day public notice of the auction of the Spanish bark Nostra Singnora (Sic) Rosario, “…laden with hides, captured in the Caribbean by Hans Wyer, the honorable company’s captain on the yacht de Cat…”

2 Jul 1648, New Amsterdam: Fiscaal [sheriff] Hendrick van Dyck charges the “…crew of Kat who captured the prize below Margarita…” with finding some pieces of eight and pearls and dividing them among themselves instead of reporting the discovery to the company. Because of the scarcity of crew and the immediate need for salt, the company pardoned the crew yet confiscated their share of the prize money if they would sail to the West Indies.
Before 18 Jul 1648, New Amsterdam: Pijnappel [Pynappel, Pineapple] arrives from Amsterdam.

20 Jul 1648, New Amsterdam: Council orders the captured ship to be made ready to sail to Curaçao for a load of salt.

Before 5 Aug 1648, New Amsterdam: Prins Willem arrives from Amsterdam. [Editor’s Note: A plausible scenario is that Penelope sailed from Amsterdam to Curaçao on either Valckenier, Pijnappel or Prins Willem and then changed ships at Curaçao. Perhaps her husband was sick.]

9 Nov 1648, New Amsterdam: Council receives a report, “Whereas the yacht De Cath, of which Jeuryaen Andries was master, arrived here from Curaçao with a cargo inside Sandy Hook, otherwise called Godyn Point, in a safe port and, the wind being contrary, tried to tack to before Fort Amsterdam, said yacht, in tacking, stranded on a sand bank with such force that notwithstanding all effort it could not be brought off, except the effects which were in and on her, inclusive of the masts; only, by the splitting of the ship, a quantity of salt was dissolved.” The council notes that the value of the salvage was sufficient to pay the crew. [Editor’s note: How long does it take to salvage the wreck and account for the money? The council minutes often report on things that happened much earlier.]
in 1648 the ship de Liefde of something just over 100 tons burden carried [a crew of ]16 on a
voyage to Barbados.

The point I'm trying to make is that there was a lot of shipping other than just direct routes between Amsterdam and New Amsterdam. Not to mention ships to and from Virginia and New England.